The academic profession in Argentina: Trends of activities and working conditions in early career academics

MARQUINA, MÓNICA; MENDONÇA, MARIANA

Arica

Congreso; 6th APIKS Conference: The academic profession moving forward: gender equality and early career researchers; 2023

Universidad de Tarapacá

The studies on academic profession have been going on for several decades as a consequence of the transformation of the higher education system since the mid-twentieth century. One of the most outstanding features has been the transformation of the working conditions of academics all over the world as well as changes in the characteristics of the academic career. Marquina et. al. (2021) state that those changes can be found in different academic generations (Shaw, 2008). In this paper we aim to analyze the transformation that the academic profession went through in the last decades, focusing on the working conditions of the early career academics in Argentina. Although worldwide trends show a process of segmentation among the academic profession (Jones, 2013; Shin, Kehm & Jones, 2018; Carvalho & Diogo, 2018; Yudkevich, Altbacj & Hans de Wit, 2020; Cardoso, Tavares, Sin & Carvalho, 2020), we assume that the segmentation in Argentina seems to be more complex. In this sense, we will focus on some particular groups that we have already identified, based on two main variables: employer and contract-time (Marquina, Mendonça & Reznik, 2022). In particular, we will consider their main characteristics and the limits that the academic profession imposes on the early career academics regarding the generational renewal. It is worth mentioning that a peculiarity of the academic body in Argentina is that not all those who are part of the academic profession carry out research tasks nor have as a requirement to hold a PHd degree. Thus, in this paper we will also focus on the peculiar characteristics of the Argentinean early career scholars, which cannot be conceptualized as ECRs, but as Early Career Academics (ECAs), since not all of them are researchers. Some of the questions that prompted our research are as follows: What conditions must the ECAs meet to enter the academic career? What are the trends of activities (teaching, research, external engagement, governance and management) developed by early career academics? What are the trends regarding the type of place of employment for early career academics? How do early academics experience their job environment? How do early career academics perceive their competencies/abilities? In order to answer these questions, we will rely on data from the Academic Profession in Knowledge Based Society (APIKS) survey.